Cofeed News: till April 13th this week, edible palm oil at China’s ports has risen to 733,800 tonnes from 708,700 tonnes by 3.5% in stocks on the week, and meantime, it is 13.5% higher than 646,300 tonnes on a year-on-year basis with an increase of 87,500 tonnes; stocks of industrial palm oil are still down from 80,500 tonnes to 75,050 tonnes on the week, with a decrease of 5,450 tonnes by 6.8%. 

    Stockpiles of palm oil this week pile up impressively owing to sufficient palm oil arrivals at ports. Till last week, price gap between soybean oil and palm oil domestically has narrowed to 645 yuan/tonne from 800 yuan/tonne in week 14, which impedes consumption of palm oil. According to Cofeed, imports of palm oil of 24-degree melting point in April are expected to be around 0.25-0.26 Mln tonnes, 70,000 tonnes higher than estimates last week thanks to new shipments, additionally, stockpiles later largely trend up for new shipments in May and June are under way.

                        Figure: Comparison of domestic palm oil stocks in recent years

    Imports of palm oil are estimated to be around 0.41-0.43 Mln tonnes for March import (0.30-0.31 Mln tonnes of 24-degree palm oil, 0.10-0.13 Mln tonnes of industrial palm oil), basically unchanged from last week’s estimate; about 0.38-0.39 Mln tonnes for April imports (0.25-0.26 Mln tonnes of 24-degree palm oil, 0.13 Mln tonnes of industrial palm oil), rising by 70,000 tonnes as opposed to estimates last week and 0.43 Mln tonnes for May imports (0.30 Mln tonnes of 24-degree palm oil, 0.13 Mln tonnes of industrial palm oil), unchanged from estimates last week. Arrivals of palm oil may change with the market and shipping schedule, therefore information will be updated according to latest shipments and possible defaults.